Melbourne

A LIFE OF ITS OWN: THE TRUTH ABOUT MEDICAL MARIJUANA 15+

Credits

Director

Helen Kapalos

Country

Australia, 2016

Running Time

81mins

Category

Documentary

Language

English

Produced by Helen Kapalos

About the Director:Born in Newcastle, New South Wales in 1971, Helen Kapalos is known to many for her work as an Australian journalist and TV presenter. She joined the Seven Network’s Sunday Night program as a senior correspondent in 2014 where she conceptualised A Life of Its Own after reporting on a series of stories on medical marijuana.

It’s not something that we want, it’s something that she needs to live…

After a high-profile television journalism career, Helen Kapalos took out a loan for kitchen renovations that never happened, and invested the money into her first feature film – a deeply personal documentary about medical marijuana.

The project was born from one of her reports: a young man called Dan Haslam, his battle with cancer and his usage of marijuana to relieve excruciating physical pain. Couple that story with the one of Helen Kapalos’ mother who also suffered for many years at the mercy of cancer, and Kapalos found herself propelled on an international fact-finding mission that would lead her from Australia’s black market to radical (yet legal) research in Israel.

Speaking to The Greek Reporter, Helen Kapalos said, “This feels like the most important thing that I have ever done in my life.” What she has achieved is not only a gripping, emotional human narrative but also a convincing clarion call for change.